65

Yup, this is smokey. And had bitterness & astringency in my first steep (after a rinse in hot tap water and another rinse for 10s in boiling water). Deep golden colored brew and very aromatic. The leaves were still quite green as you can see in the right-hand dish of the photo, which belies the teas youth and drier storage. By the 3rd steep, the smokiness had diminished but the astringency remained potent. Perhaps this tea will age to a smoother and sweeter brew in 10 or 20 more years, and if so, perhaps my heirs will be enjoying it.
UPDATE: I continued sipping this, now on infusion number 6 (five minutes). The bitterness and astringency have tempered, but the soup remains a beautiful, clear, deep golden color. Nice, round mouhfeel. Bumping up my rating by 5 pts. though the tea still needs more age. This, too, was part of the “smokey tea lovers sampler set” and I’m glad to have tried it.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Smoke

Preparation
5 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Left-coast reared (on Bigelow’s Constant Comment and Twinings’ Earl Grey) and right-coast educated, I’ve used this moniker (and Email) since the glory days of AOL in the 90’s, reflecting two of my lifelong loves—tea and ‘Trek. Now a midwestern science guy (right down to the Hawaiian shirts), I’m finally broadening the scope of my sippage and getting into all sorts of Assamicas, from mainstream Assam CTCs to Taiwan blacks & TRES varietals, to varied Pu’erhs. With some other stuff tossed in for fun. Love reading other folks’ tasting notes (thank you), I’ve lurked here from time to time and am now adding a few notes of my own to better appreciate the experience. You can keep the rooibos LoL!
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Photo with Aromatic Bamboo Species Raw Pu-erh Tea “Xiang Zhu” by Yunnan Sourcing, which is most definitely aromatic!

Location

Chicagoland-USA

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